Introduction
This book answers the question “why do some people or companies succeed while others doesn’t?”. It also explains why it is important to have a strong WHY if you want to achieve your goals in life.
Why Start With Why
If you don’t have a clear WHY, you don’t have a clear purpose. This means you are not doing what you’re doing for the right reasons. The reason why most people or companies fail is because they don’t have a strong and clear WHY.
The first step to succeed in life and achieve your goals is to find a WHY. After finding a WHY, then try make sure that most of the things you do are related to your WHY. Every time you have to make important decisions ask yourself “is this aligned with my WHY?” or “does this move me closer towards my goals?” and make a decision based on the answer. This means you have to say “no” to many things.
Influencing Others With Why
If you want to influence other people you can either manipulate them or inspire them. Manipulation is a short-term solution while inspiration is a long-term solution. Manipulation, such as different promotions and sales, can be a good strategy if you want some quick sales. But loyal customers can only be found through inspiration. People will only get inspired if you have a strong WHY. Loyal customers are also willing to pay a premium. Their description on why they choose the company is often just that it felt right.
Energy motivates but charisma inspires. All great leaders have charisma because they know their WHY. You can replicate a persons energy but you can’t replicate persons charisma. So find and define your WHY, become more charismatic and people around will be inspired. Leaders also need to be trustworthy and keep their promises.
Attracting Customers With Why
It is easier for customers to make decisions based on WHYs instead of WHATs. This means if there are five phones that only shows price and technical data it’s going to be a difficult decision to make. But if it also shows each company’s WHY, such as the phone was created, then it will be an easier decisions to make. The customer will most likely choose the company which they can associate most with.
Trust between a customer and a company is created when the customer feels like the company is not only self-serving but instead really want to help others.
People in general want to be around others share their beliefs and have similar values. When companies have a WHY that we can relate to it makes us feel special and a feeling like we are part of something bigger. We will most likely choose a company that share our beliefs.
The Golden Circle
- WHAT is the product or service you offer.
- HOW is the process to produce your WHATs.
- WHY is the purpose and reasons for creating the product or service.
If we want to succeed when learning something new or creating a new product, we should begin from the middle and work our way out instead of the other way. This means we should first have a clear WHY we do what we do, then focus on HOW we are going to do it and lastly WHAT it is we are going to do.
Most companies when introducing a new product only talk about WHAT they have done and HOW they did it. Very few talk about WHY they have created this new product or service. According to the book customers are not interested in WHAT it is you offer but instead WHY you have created it. People buy WHYs (your purpose or belief) and not WHATs (products).
Why Types and How Types
- WHY types are the visionaries with big dreams. They are very optimistic and think that most things they can imagine can be created. They think more long-term and about the future.
- HOW types are more realistic and focus more on building things. They think more short-term and about the problems that are needs to be solved in the near future.
WHY types need HOW types to do well but HOW types don’t need WHY types to do well. Most people are HOW types. Large companies are created when a good WHY type gather good HOW types and inspires them with a good WHY. He creates an environment where good ideas can happen.
Personal Favorite Lesson Learned
For values to be effective they have to be identified verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it is “always do the right thing”. It’s not “honesty”, it is “speak the truth and be an honest person”. Identifying our values as verbs gives them a much clearer idea and gives us a more precise way on how to act in a situation. The value also becomes more measurable and it easier to hold each other accountable.
General Advice
If you are looking for long-term success then your WHY shouldn’t be to make money. Money should just be the result of you creating value following your WHY.
The reason why people compete so much with each others is because they lack a clear WHY. People with a strong enough WHY don’t compete, instead focus only on their WHY. If you want to stand out and be different from others then just focus on your WHY, that way you will automatically be different. When you compete against others, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you.
When looking to hire people, focus more on WHY than WHAT. Most companies write their job description all about WHAT and not WHY. More focus on WHY will attract more people. Hire only motivated people and then inspire them with your WHY. If you hire talented people who are not motivated then a lot of time will be wasted trying to motivate them.
The target audience for a company should be the customers who share their beliefs and have the same WHY. The company should not try to convert people with a different WHY to their customer. This will most likely not work. The people who share the same WHY will eventually convince the others to also follow.
People who succeed are not always happy. The reason they are not happy is because they stopped following and started to compromise their WHY. This can be caused from following too much outside advice and not trusting your WHY and having a lack of confidence in yourself.
A persons WHY can of course change depending on where they are in life and the things that are happening to them. A persons WHY should change only if what they value changes. Some thought needs to be put into it and it should not happen to often.
This book can also be summarized by his TED talk:
